So Aaron Ekblad certainly hasn’t had the best season, regular or off, suspension-wise; he’s been off the ice a lot lately. However, he still looks to be doing better than poor Brandon Hagel, who’s off the ice right now for a whole other reason.
Alright, so Aaron Ekblad, whose earlier suspension for a banned substance violation extended two games into the playoffs, didn’t really make the best impression back on the ice, as just in game 4, he elbowed Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hadel in the head. The blow was so bad that Hagel fell to the ground and had to walk off the ice after being seen as visibly woozy. And it’s been announced that he won’t be able to play in game 5, with Tampa Bay’s coach Jon Cooper saying, “He’s not playing tomorrow; there it is, and you know why.”
Ekblad, on the other hand, did not receive a penalty during the game, nor was he even assessed for one; in fact, he went on to score the game-time goal with 3.47 left on the clock, after which Seth Jones scored the winner. However, post-game, Ekblad was suspended for the 5th and 6th games of the series and was reported to be scheduled for a phone hearing regarding the incident.
But, before you start thinking this is just a series of really unfortunate suspensions and Ekblad’s hit on Brandon Hagel came totally out of the blue, think again. There is some history here.
Brandon Hagel’s suspension for a hit on Panther’s captain before his injury
Before Ekblad’s elbow to Brandon Hagel that caused him to have to drop out of game 5, he hadn’t appeared in game 3 for a similar reason, well, in reverse. In game 2 of the playoff series between NHL‘s Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, Hagel was suspended for a hit on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov, who didn’t return to the ice after the incident. However, it couldn’t have been as bad a hit as Hagel received from Ekblad, as while Hagel received a one-game suspension, Ekblad is now suspended for two and is unlikely to finish out the playoffs with Florida. So how badly is Hagel really hurt?
Well, Hagel’s head took the brunt of the hit and then ricocheted off the ice. While there is no word from coach Cooper at the moment regarding the extent of the injury, we do know that Hagel will be unable to appear in game 5. The hit was in fact so hard that many were astounded that it didn’t get called while Ekblad was on the ice, and Cooper even exchanged some choice words with the officials. Further, after Hagel headed off to the dressing room, he never returned. The whole incident seems to have not sat well with coach Cooper, who, when asked about the hit right after the game, responded with, “It’s getting tiresome answering questions about a hit every game,” he said. “I’ll ask you. Why are you asking me the question? If anybody in here has something, stand up and let’s go?” It can’t help anyone that Hagel was mostly getting booed by the Floridian audience during the game because of his hit on Barkov in the previous one.
Either way, the ball is now in Florida’s court, as if they manage to knock Tampa out on home turf in game 5, they’d have won the entire series. The question is, can they manage to do this without Ekblad, who played such a pivotal part in game 4? And on Tampa’s end of things, the crowd is not going to be too happy about the damage done to star forward Brandon Hagel!
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